


Life Doesn't Give You Lemons

by Nat_Ahgase



Category: GOT7
Genre: Ahgase - Freeform, Double B, F/M, GOT7 - Freeform, Holiday, Kim Yugyeom - Freeform, Kunpimook Bhuwakul | BamBam-centric, Mentioned Kim Yugyeom, Sex, Trip - Freeform, Vacation Fling, bambam - Freeform, finding yourself, iGot7 - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:08:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 21,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27973499
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nat_Ahgase/pseuds/Nat_Ahgase
Summary: Ava escapes her life before a complete mental breakdown and decides to go on a trip by herself. In the middle of nowhere, in a secluded resort, she meets Bambam.Through steamy nights and fun daytime adventures, he manages to bring light back into her life. Will they be able to fix each other or will the trip end and both will go back home unchanged?
Relationships: Bambam/Original female character
Comments: 7
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

Flipping through the pages of her book “Life doesn’t give you Lemons”, Gia is waiting for her plane to board. The busy airport noise is giving her the perfect atmosphere to read a bit more about how to improve herself. Who is she kidding? If she’s learned anything on this trip, it’s that no matter how hard she tries to change her innermost insecurities, they remain a part of her. Instead, embrace them. 

The memories of her time start flooding her mind. The visuals of the beach and the hiking trips replace the sight of sweaty travellers running to catch their flights. The smell of the fresh ocean air before dawn and the sound of the wind blowing through the trees flood her senses. If only she could do it all over again, she wouldn’t change a single thing. 

Well, maybe one thing. She would try and spend more time with him. She didn’t intend to have a holiday fling, but the most amazing people are met unexpectedly. 

Gia remembers his face so clearly. She could be staring at him right now. His high cheekbones and his sharp jawline, his short hair, barely long enough to fall onto his forehead… it all just seems too perfect to be a real human being. The way he whispered in her ear… She shakes her head. This is not the place to be thinking about those moments, but she can’t wipe the smirk from the vivid memories of him off her face. 

Gia bites her lip and chuckles to herself. 

The noise picks up and some screaming fills the departure hall. Gia looks up to find the source and notices a big group of young girls mixed with photographers shuffling their way down towards the gates. She stands up to peak at the person they are all following and raises her eyebrows when she spots them. 

Bambam has a hand in his pocket and a pair of sunglasses on his nose. He looks dashing, Gia thinks to herself. She picks up her stuff, fully aware she can’t speak with him or call out to him, but what she can do, is show herself for a brief moment. A silent goodbye. A silent I appreciate everything you’ve done. A silent farewell. 

So, she gets up and puts her backpack over her shoulders. She steps over to the corridor between the rows of seats and starts making her way towards the swarm of people moving the opposite direction. Before she knows it, they are at eye level and she can see the way his lips curl up as he looks over his sunglasses.

His gestures are barely visible. No one would know they even looked at each other, if they weren’t expecting it. And so they pass by each other with a warm smile on their faces. With no hope to ever meet again, Gia and Bambam return to their lives with a sweet memory of what it's like to let go.


	2. Chapter 2

The sun is shining brightly, almost at its highest point, when Bambam and Yugyeom finally make it to the resort. After their plane was delayed for two hours, they missed their connecting flight and made it to their final destination a lot later than expected. Now that they are here, all Bambam wants to do is go for a swim and drink a cocktail. 

Yugyeom is getting them checked in, while Bambam stays back to tip the taxi driver and get their luggage. A staff member is already hurrying down the slope with a baggage trolley to help him out. Bambam thanks the man with a nod and heads up to meet Yugyeom. 

The soft sound of Latin music comes from the speakers around the lobby and he lets himself breathe in the salty ocean breeze. Finally, a holiday. The last time he got time off was… he can’t even remember it’s been that long. It might just be two weeks, but he will make the most of them and let himself relax so much, his body won’t even remember what dancing is by the end of it. Well, maybe not to that point. 

He stops in his tracks and just listens to the beautiful voice singing. He breathes in and out and is about to really manage to get over the travel anxiety from the past hours, when a loud voice starts echoing through the lobby. 

“I told you, there’s no way.” The voice says angrily. 

Bambam opens his eyes and searches the room for the source of the new voice and sees her walk into the room from the opposite end. Gia is on the phone and she looks pissed. Her face is red from anger and her head is starting to ache just thinking about the person on the other end of the call. 

“What do I pay you for? Make up an excuse.” She adds clearly frustrated with whatever is going on. “Just tell them to take it as a break.” 

She is heading towards the bar with determination. It might be 11AM here, but it is 4PM somewhere. And 4PM has become Gia’s favourite time of day. Happy hour. 

Bambam follows her with his eyes and notices the sign that says “BAR” in all caps with an arrows next to it. Intrigued by the amount of emotion in her voice and also the sharpness of her features underneath those big sunglasses and hat. He takes a step towards the reception desk and crosses her path. The closer she gets the more familiar she looks, as if they had met before, but he can’t place it. 

As she strides by him, she doesn’t even look up. Too consumed by the anger of having to deal with this on her holiday, she can only think about one thing: it starts v and ends in odka. Or this might be a tequila occasion. She hasn’t fully decided yet. But whichever it is, it’ll be accompanied by a thorough massage. 

Bambam keeps his eyes on her until she disappears around the corner. 

“Here’s your key.” Yugyeom appears next to him and hands him one of the two key cards for their room. “Should we get going?”   
Bambam considers but decides against it. He looks over to the man waiting with their luggage and waves him over. He picks a twenty out of his pocket and hands it to him. 

“Can you take these to our room please?” Bambam asks him confidently and the man just nods and heads off. “Don’t you think we deserve a drink after that trip?” 

“At 11AM?” Yugyeom counters in confusion. He even checks his phone to confirm the time again. Bambam must’ve gone a bit crazy. 

“We’re on holiday, bro!” He starts off towards the exit, following Gia’s path and hoping she isn’t too far gone yet. 

Gia takes a seat at the bar and immediately puts her head on the counter top. The bar man Enzo laughs at her while cleaning his shaker. Every day the same routine. Gia comes in exhausted from lack of sleep, then she sits down in that very stool and orders the same drink. 

“1-“ Gia starts but Enzo slides a Sex on the Beach across to her. Instead of lifting her head and thanking him, she just gives him a thumbs up and feels her way around until she finds the drink. Enzo quickly adds the straw he forgot into the drink before she can snatch it away.

Gia avoids dunking her hair in the drink and brings it underneath the counter. Her eyes stay closed as she tries to aim the straw straight into her mouth. She succeeds on the first try, having done this everyday for about a week. Maybe she should switch up her drink order soon, or else she’ll get sick of this one. She doesn’t want to get sick of Sex on the Beach. 

“What is it today?” Enzo asks half jokingly, knowing that Gia won’t say anything to him anyway. But he still tries. It is his job as a bartender after all, to be like a night time therapist. Even if it is 11AM. 

Gia lifts her head up to look at him. Her hair falls into her face and she tries to blow it away. Her hat and sunglasses lying on the stool next to hers. 

Behind them, Bambam and Yugyeom enter the bar. Yugyeom looks around curiously at the cool open designs. On one side, he can see the ocean and on the other side, he has a clear view of the mountains behind the resort bungalows. In awe, he doesn’t notice Bambam stop walking and checking out the miserable girl sitting at the bar. He’s glad Bambam convinced him to spend their time off together here. Otherwise, he would’ve probably just sat at home for two weeks doing nothing and this way he can sit around in a nice hotel doing nothing.

Bambam can’t explain the curiosity that this girl awoke in him, but he really wants to know why she is so angry in a place this beautiful. He pokes Yugyeom and points to the table close to her. Unaware of his ulterior motive, Yugyeom nods and heads over there to take a seat. 

“This is just crazy. Just crazy.” Gia exclaims looking a little bit crazy. She finally straightens up completely and looks like a human being again. “Can you believe her? I told her not to contact me and what does she do?” 

“Call you every day?” Enzo asks unsure if it was a rhetorical question, if she was really talking to herself or if she was actually asking him. 

“Calls me every day.” Gia repeats and lets her head fall back. Her hair hits the small of her back as she shakes her head. “It’d be fine if she didn’t know, but she is fully aware. Man… should I just turn off my phone?” Gia leans forward and stares at Enzo.

“You could for some peace and quiet.” Enzo answers, this time certain it was directed at him. “Maybe you’ll stop drinking at 11AM. Give your liver some peace and quiet too.” 

Gia waves him off and leans back. She takes a sip of her cocktail again, she rolls her eyes.

“Hey, don’t bite the hand that feeds you.” Enzo jokes and goes to take her cocktail away with a smirk on his face. 

“No! I’m sorry. Please don’t take that away from me.” Gia objects. “It’s the only thing that’s keeping me going right now.”

The seriousness in her tone throws Enzo off and he drops his hand. The sadness in her eyes showing a little more today. He walks over to the fridge and grabs a bottle of water. He hands it to her with an encouraging smile. 

“Drink this and go take a nap.” 

Gia takes the bottle and puts it on her pile of stuff on the other stool. 

“What should we do today?” Yugyeom asks Bambam enthusiastically. He can’t wait to go try out all the activities the resort offers, but Bambam isn’t really paying attention.

“Whatever you want, bro.” He responds nonchalantly. 

She doesn’t look up again and lets her head rest on the counter again. This time, she is looking to the side, where Bambam and Yugyeom are waiting to be served. She meets Bambam’s eyes and he immediately looks away, embarrassed to be caught like that. Little does he know that she is blind without her glasses and has no idea that he was looking at her.

“What can I get you guys?” Enzo asks picking up two glasses. 

“Just whatever she’s having.” Bambam answers and points to Gia’s drink. She squints her eyes to see them better and raises her glass to them. 

“Cheers.” She says quietly, before taking another sip. Bambam looks back at her, this time noticing that she isn’t really looking at him, but more at his general area. He turns his head slightly to see if her eyes follow him, but they don’t.

Enzo comes over with their drinks and sets them down on the table. Bambam takes this opportunity to ask him some questions about her, unable to be subtle about it.

“Who’s she?” He asks point blank.

“Unsure, she never introduced herself. I call her peach schnapps.” 

“Peach schnapps?” Yugyeom asks confused. 

Enzo looks back to make sure she isn’t listening to them and leans in a bit closer to them. 

“It’s in your drink. She orders this, every day at 11AM after getting a call from a woman she doesn’t want to talk to. That’s all I know.” Enzo reveals, before straightening back up and heading back to the bar. 

“Is this that delicious that she needs it every day?” Yugyeom wonders curiously. He takes a sip of his drink and scrunches his nose in disgust. “What the hell did you order me, man?” 

Bambam just shrugs and takes a sip of his. He cringes at the sweetness of it, but keeps drinking it without taking his eyes off the girl with her head on the counter top.


	3. Chapter 3

Later in the afternoon, Gia is reading her book “Life doesn’t Give You Lemons” while sipping away on another drink. What can she say? A girl loves her cocktails, plus this is an all inclusive resort. She has to take advantage of that. 

The sun is occasionally hidden by some clouds, easing the intensity of the heat every now and then, but Gia doesn’t mind it that much. As long as it isn’t windy, she can read in peace and take a nap whenever she wants. At least here, with her phone in her room, no one can bother her. Her mind can finally rest. 

Gia would never admit to reading a self help book about growing as a person and learning to stand up for yourself, but sometimes one needs to do things they wouldn’t normally do to get people off their backs. She hates confrontation more than anything, so instead of talking out her issues she really likes to run away. That kind of pisses people off, so they call her every day to try and get her to come back. How annoying. Don’t they understand that running away is fun? 

Anyway, Gia is trying to become a better person and talk about her feelings without losing all of her confidence in the process, but that is a difficult change that takes time. So, she chose the place the furthest away from home where all hell is breaking loose, to relax and gives herself the time to prepare for that confrontation. 

To be honest, there is nothing wrong with that plan in her head. It is way better to let herself adjust to a situation from afar, rather than going crazy in the middle of it. So she exhales loudly and continues reading about solidifying her self esteem in her own abilities, rather than the opinions of others. It’s okay for some people to dislike you… If only she believed that. 

Gia blames her parents for this. Why did they have to have her as the middle child? Why did they have to raise her as the people pleaser? It has been a long time coming, but even she didn’t expect her big breakdown to entail a distance of over five thousand kilometres. Oh well, she can’t change that now. If only they had had her as the youngest, her biggest problem would be consistently being deemed unfit to do things on her own… What she would give to switch bodies with her younger brother right now…

Her drink tastes sweeter than usual, the beach bartender Lily, yes she knows them all by name, always adds a little more of the juice and a little less of the alcohol. Maybe the bartenders in the resort had a meeting about her and how they should reduce the alcohol in her drinks… But Gia likes sweet drinks, so she isn’t complaining. 

In the distance, a group of young men are playing beach volleyball in their swimming trunks. Gia tries to spy a speedo among the abs, but she is unlucky so she returns to her book. Just as she goes to drink again, something comes crashing down on her chest and knocks the drink all over her stomach and towel. Her sunglasses are knocked off her face and she just about manages to hold her book out of the way, to save it from getting splashed with her beverage. 

She grunts in pain as she holds the spot on her stomach where the impact had happened. She looks around and sees a white volleyball lying next to her in the sand. She puts down her book on the little side table and gets up to dry her stomach. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Are you okay?” Bambam comes running up to her looking apologetic. This wasn’t how he wanted to introduce himself to her. The closer he gets to her though, the more he notices features that look familiar. 

Gia glares at him. “Do I look okay? I have a huge red mark on my stomach.” She points to her stomach and tries to rub some sand off of it, but winces in pain. “And I am sticky!” She complains. 

Unable to hold in laughter at the way she looks right now, Bambam lets out a snort. Gia snaps her eyes to him and raises her eyebrows. 

“Is this funny to you?” She asks seriously. “Today, is the worst day!” She almost shouts, but holds back. Instead she breathes in and out. 

“We didn’t mean to hit you. I said I’m sorry, what else can I do?” Bambam replies starting to feel a little irritated. 

Gia’s eyes soften and she shakes her head. “You’re right… It’s no big deal.” She picks up the ball from the ground and hands it over to him. 

Seeing her give him so quickly and the way her expression changed as soon as he called her out is pulling the strings of his heart. 

“Can I get you a fresh towel to dry off?” Bambam is about to turn around and run towards the towel hut, when Yugyeom jogs up to them already holding one. 

“Here, use this.” Yugyeom leans down and starts wiping the drink off her arm. “Sorry…” He mumbles. “I don’t have great aim.” He jokes. 

Gia takes the towel from him and steps back. She nods a silent thanks and continues wiping her body. 

Bambam picks up the now empty cup and takes it over to the bar hut, that is almost right next to her seat. She must’ve strategically chosen this seat, he thinks, to always be less than five steps away from more alcohol. At least she knows how to party. 

“You should run into the ocean and clean off, you’ll be less sticky.” Bambam suggests and points to the sea behind them, but Gia just shakes her head and smiles. 

“I think the sand on the ball must’ve rubbed on my stomach. It kinda hurts, so the salt water wouldn’t help.” She explains and picks up her other towel. “I’ll just shower back at my room.” 

She walks off, but Yugyeom shouts another “Sorry!” after her. She raises her hand up and waves back at them. She rubs the towel on her stomach again, trying to get more sand off, but instead ends up rubbing it in a bit more. The burn makes her wince again. Could this day get any worse? 

Bambam and Yugyeom watch her go, until the guys they were playing with call for the ball. Bambam turns around and chucks it their way, before turning back to Yugyeom. 

“Doesn’t she look familiar?” He asks him, hoping at least Yugyeom will remember her face, but he just shakes his head. 

“She’s pretty, though.” He smirks at his best friend and turns around to run back to the game. 

But Bambam can’t go back yet. He’s still trying to place her face in the many memories he has travelling the past decade. He could’ve met her anywhere around the world, which doesn’t make his search easier. If only he has asked for her name, maybe then something would fall into place. 

He sighs and turns to go back, but spots a book lying on the side table where she had just been. She must’ve forgotten it. Maybe her name is written in it, he thinks.

“Come on, Bambam. She’s not in middle school.” He whispers to himself as he goes around the chaise longue and picks it up. 

The title is peculiar and Bambam is too curious to leave it alone. Once he sees the post its in it, his curiosity takes over and he opens the book up. He realises it’s a self help book and frowns, wondering if it’s for anger management. He chuckles at that, but shakes his head. He shouldn’t judge her if she is trying to improve that. 

Instead, he flicks through the pages until he comes across the first post it. It opens on a chapter beginning entitled “How to love yourself by yourself”. There is a note scribbled underneath the title and Bambam smiles at it. 

She wrote: maybe just a little bit for now. For some reason, this warms Bambam’s heart again. The way she has shown herself to him today, he didn’t think she had self esteem issues. Maybe he just read her completely wrong until now. He puts the book under his arm and steps onto the path leading to the bungalows, but he can’t remember what way she went and can’t see her in the distance either. 

He’ll just have to hold on to the book until he sees her next time. Then he can also ask her for her name and maybe figure out where he knows her from.


	4. Chapter 4

Enzo is pouring Gia her third drink of the night and she has only been sitting here for about an hour. He admires her tolerance, but also rolls his eyes at her stupidity. Supposedly, he is the only one concerned about her liver between the two of them. 

Gia is tracing back her steps and trying to remember where she left her book. She’s only three quarters in and really needs the help from a stranger to figure herself out. If anyone expects her to do that by herself, they have a whole other thing coming. 

Tonight, she opted for the frozen strawberry daiquiri. Not once, not twice but a whole of three times. She knows that Enzo is a big stingy on the alcohol, so she really only considers this her first drink. She doesn’t even feel it, or maybe that’s just because she is a little bit dead inside. 

The host of tonight’s salsa night grabs the mic to announce a performance. Him and his gorgeous partner in the red dress will demonstrate to all of the guests how to properly salsa dance, so they can all do it themselves after. As if people will actually go and try their luck at dancing salsa in front of a bunch of professionals. Gia knows she won’t. No chance in hell.

Gia only ever does things she is good at, especially if others are watching. It’s kind of like a self protection mechanism. Usually, if she isn’t good at a new thing from the start, she also tends to drop it quickly. If there is anything she has less of than time to waste, it’s patience. Maybe that’s why she decided to run away all the way across the world when hell broke loose? 

It wasn’t really her fault but of course no one believed her. She just happened to become the scapegoat in a truly crazy situation with no way to prove her innocence. So why not disappear for a bit? Who is to say there is a proper way to deal with it? If Taylor Swift can disappear for three years and come back stronger than ever, than so can Gia. Hopefully…

Gia turns in her stool, leaning her elbow on the bar counter and unattractively chewing on her straw while occasionally using it to actually drink her cocktail. This one is a little sweeter than the one before, leading her to believe Enzo really is adding less and less alcohol. She’ll have to watch him make number four very closely. 

The host and his drop dead gorgeous partner start floating over the dance floor. Their precision and skill make it so they look like they are flying. Gia wished she could be that good at something, instead she’s just average good at many things but never great at one. She scoffs. How annoying… more people to show her up.

She turns back to Enzo, unable to keep looking at the perfection of their dance moves and frowns. 

“Enzo?” She says trying to peak over the bar but seeing nobody. Enzo stands back up from his crouched position catching her by surprise. “Oh shit. You scared me.” 

“I was here the whole time.” Enzo responds and closes the fridge door at his feet. “What’s up?” 

“Could I get some more mini pretzels please.” Gia holds up the empty bowl in front of her with a pout. Enzo just rolls his eyes with a smile and grabs it off her. 

He hands her a full one. “This is the second time I fill it up. We aren’t really supposed to do that.” 

“But this is happy hour.” Gia argues.

“Happy hour is at 4PM. It’s now 10PM.” Enzo points out smugly. 

“This is an all inclusive resort. Every hour is happy hour.” Gia winks at him and turns her attention back to the dance floor where the performance is coming to an end. 

Bambam walks in, closely followed by Yugyeom to the room erupting in applause. They start laughing, joking that the applause is for them, as they make their way over to the bar where Gia is sitting clapping away with a bored expression on her face. 

“Isn’t that the girl from yesterday?” Yugyeom nudges Bambam and nods his head in her direction. 

Bambam follows his gaze and immediately thinks about the book he’d picked up. It’s now lying on his nightstand and might’ve been read a little bit more. He feels like he understands her a bit better, after seeing the notes she left for herself in a book she surely never expected someone else to see. The notes were so vulnerable and honest, Bambam felt strange reading them. Like being in someone else’s head without their permission. 

“Yeah.” He responds and leans against the bar to order their drinks. 

“So grab a partner and come try it out. If you have any questions, my name is Filipe and I can teach you how to salsa dance in less than five min!” He laughs into the microphone before turning it off and earning himself some more applause after bowing one last time. 

Gia watches a couple of people actually going to the centre of the room to try it out and she huffs. A part of her wished someone would ask her to dance, mostly just so she can decline them. But maybe also a bit so she can have the option to join in. Coming here alone has been great, but sometimes, especially in moments like these, she has been hoping for someone to share them with. 

She shakes her head. “Don’t be silly.” She mutters to herself and finishes her third drink in one big gulp. “Enzo!” She shouts excitedly and moves her gaze back to the spot where her favourite bartender had been standing just a couple of minutes ago. “Huh? Where’d he go?” 

Gia looks down the length of the bar and sees him serving two good looking guys. The one closer to her looks really familiar, just like the guy who attacked her with his ball the day before.   
Her eyes widen in shock. Of course she would cross paths with him again, he stays in the same closed off resort as her. This isn’t that crazy, but she also knows him from before. He definitely doesn’t remember her though. There’s no way. It was such a brief encounter a couple of years ago. 

Bambam turns his head and his eyes meet hers. At first he wants to look away immediately, but he notices her lips curl up into a smile, so he just keeps his eyes on hers and smiles back. She raises her empty glass in a silent cheers and nods in acknowledgement. 

He’s so handsome, she thinks to herself trying hard to remember the chapters of the book she’s already read. She’s pretty sure they said no to getting a significant other when one is in the process of reinventing themselves, but what did it say about casual sex? She can’t mind it. 

“Hi, I don’t think we’ve been introduced. I’m Bambam. This is my friend Yugyeom.” Bambam holds out his hand for her to shake her hand. She stares at it for a second, unsure if she is imagining this just from being so deep in her thoughts just a moment ago. But when she reaches her hand out to hold his, it is really there. 

“Nice to meet you, I’m Gia.” She responds and shakes his hand, before taking hers back. “No balls today I hope?” 

Before Gia’s brain can register what exactly she is about to say, the words leave her mouth. Great job Gia, she thinks, what the hell is wrong with you? But to her surprise they both laugh it off. 

“Not more than usual.” Bambam adds with a wink. Gia immediately blushes at her own stupidity. 

“Sorry…” She mumbles before calling Enzo over again. “Enzo! Can I get another one please?”

“Another one?” Enzo asks flabbergasted. 

“Yes and please make it right here.” Gia points at the space in front of her. “So I can watch you very closely.” 

He rolls his eyes at her for what feels like the hundredth time today, but does as he is told. Customer is always king or well queen. 

“Why does he have to do it right there?” Yugyeom asks curiously taking a seat on a stool next to hers. 

“Enzo likes to be very light on the alcohol. So I just want to make sure I get my 25ml.” She responds with a grin. 

To be honest, Gia just enjoys Enzo’s presence. In her first week here, he has been the only one who really talked to her and has been trying to take care of her subtly. She doesn’t actually mind less alcohol in her drinks, since she knows it’s better for her anyway. She just wants to tease him a little, because she doesn’t want to express her gratitude and true feelings. Typical Gia.

“Did you see the performance? Were they good?” Bambam asks changing the subject and pointing to the instructor going around every couple and correcting their steps. 

“They were disgustingly good.” Gia responds immediately. 

“Disgustingly good?” 

“Yeah, you know when someone is so good at something it makes you feel like you have no talent whatsoever?” Bambam nods amused. “That’s how good they were.” 

“Do you wanna try?” Gia’s eyes snap to his and she immediately shakes her head. 

“I don’t think so.” She responds and turns away from the dance floor. Her face already burning red at just being asked to dance by this attractive man. 

Gia tries to remember again what the book said about just casual and fun sex, but her mind draws a blank. Did it even brush on the topic? Surely having sex would be considered a step towards finding yourself? Exploring sexually could surely bring some new found confidence into her life. Even if the book didn’t say that, she might just pretend it does. 

“Come on, what have you got to lose? You’ll never see any of these people again.” Bambam adds with a smirk on his face. He leans in closer. “Salsa is a very hot dance. It’ll give you a confidence boost, if you let it.” 

Gia turns her eyes to him again, surprised by his words and intrigued by the suggestion. She could really use a confidence boost, plus lesson number 1 in learning to love yourself by yourself: let yourself feel attractive even when you don’t believe it. 

So she jumps off the stool and grabs his hand. 

“Let’s go.” Gia says, mustering up all the confidence she possibly can. 

Bambam takes another sip of his drink, but is already pulled in the direction of the dance floor. He reaches back to Yugyeom and the latter takes the glass off his friend with a chuckle, disappointed that he was faster in securing the girl but not bothered enough to interfere.

“A new couple! Great!” Filipe and his partner already circle them and start placing their hands on each other. 

Her hand is on his shoulder so quickly, she almost doesn’t notice his feather-like grip on her waist. But of course she notices, because every movement of his fingers throws lighting like strikes up and down her body, making it hard to focus on the things she is being told to do. 

Filipe and his partner step away to let them make their first attempt on their own, and Gia immediately steps on Bambam’s foot.  
“Ah shit, sorry.” She mutters and tries to shake the nervousness off.

“It’s fine.” He responds and pulls her in tighter, until she is basically pressed up against him. Her breath hitches and she meets his eyes. “If it helps you feel a bit more confident, you look insanely hot right now.” 

Her mouth falls open slightly and she isn’t sure if he actually just said that. Her head starts spinning but he is still holding onto her tightly enough that she can’t stumble. He smiles at in such a sexy manner, she almost can’t take her eyes off of his face. 

She clears her throat and looks away to hide the obvious blush on her cheeks. 

“Is it hot in here?” Gia asks a bit out of breath. “Maybe I’ve had too much to drink.” She jokes and Bambam just nods in agreement.

“That must be it.” He jokes and spins her around once. “Should we try this again?”


	5. Chapter 5

The pair of them stumble into Gia’s room, almost falling over too busy kissing than actually properly opening the door. Gia’s hands are all up in Bambam’s hair and his are roaming up and down her sides, feelings his way around her silk dress. 

Gia’s new principal is clear: in order to achieve more confidence, she needs to make sure she feels sexy. And what better way to feel sexy than to have sex with a gorgeous stranger? 

That new principal is being put to the test right now and Gia hasn’t felt this alive since her first red carpet in 2017. The rush of excitement that is running through her body right now and he has only just started to touch her over her dress. She’s glad she decided to wear her nicer underwear today for sure. 

The door falls shut behind them and Bambam pushes her up against it softly. He continues kissing her lips and moves his hand to brush against her breast. 

This isn’t how Bambam expected the night to go. He just wanted to flirt the night away and have a good time, but one thing lead to another and he is telling Yugyeom to go back without him. The latter laughing at him and walking away shaking his head at his friend. It must’ve been the salsa dancing that really built up the tension between them, at least Yugyeom thinks so. He couldn’t even watch them dance it was that gross. Instead he spent the rest of the night drinking Gia’s drink, which she abandoned and becoming friends with Enzo. What a great guy. 

Bambam reaches for the sipper on the side of Gia’s dress and starts pulling it down slowly, just in case she changes her mind. But she doesn’t object and moans into his mouth. Once the sipper is all the way down, Bambam brushes the straps off her shoulders and the dress just flows down in one elegant motion. Unable to take his lips off of hers, intoxicated by her taste, he doesn’t even look down to see the beautiful black lacy underwear. He’ll see it soon enough. 

They are in no rush tonight, but they lack the patience and rush to explore each other’s bodies. Gia grabs a hold of the hem of Bambam’s shirt, reaching up just high enough to undo the top three buttons. She then raises it to lift over his head, unable to wait longer than necessary undoing more buttons. He breaks away from her soft lips and throws off the shirt, discarding it somewhere to his right, not paying any further attention to it.

Now that his eyes are open again, he finally takes in the sight in front of him. The way the dark lace compliments her curves sends a rush of heat through his body. He reaches out his hand and places it on her waist. Her dress is still lying at her feet, so he wraps his arm around her waist and lifts her up and out of it. She grabs a hold of his bicep feeling it up and down, impressed with the size of his muscles. 

He places her down on the edge of the bed and kisses her quickly, before stepping back. He kneels down in front of her and begins opening the straps of her shoes, throwing them behind him one by one. Once they are off, he stands back up and places one hand on each side of her, leaning in until she can feel his breath on her face.   
“Where should I kiss you first?” He whispers. His eyes captivating hers with such intensity, he could do almost anything to her right now. “Here?” He asks and kisses her jaw. “Or here?” He moves lower and places his lips on her collarbone softly. 

Gia closes her eyes, trying to keep her breath somewhat steady and letting out a sigh of anticipation. 

“Here?” He asks kissing between her breast, jus above the fabric of her bra. 

She can’t take it anymore and tries to hide her body’s reaction to him by sighing again. She throws her head back but her sigh isn’t silent like the previous one, instead a low moan leaves her lips and his mouth curls up into a satisfied smile against her skin. 

“Here?” He asks, but this time the question isn’t immediately followed by his lips touching a new part of her body. 

Gia licks her lips and opens her eyes to him staring up at her, waiting for instructions. He doesn’t need to specify where he wants to kiss her next, the way his eyes are piercing into hers, she knows exactly what he means. 

Instead of responding, Gia leans forward and catches him off guard by crashing her lips to his. She brings her legs beneath her, so she is kneeling on the bed in front of him and pulls him up to be at her height kneeling on the floor. Gia lets her hands travel down his naked chest and hooks her fingers in his belt loops to pull him in even closer. 

Once she has taken off his jeans, the game is on. She doesn’t hesitate to pull him on top of her and wrap her legs around his body. Neither can wait for the rest of their clothes to come off, so when she unclasps her bra she doesn’t wait to reach for his waistband. Within seconds, she has him pinned against the mattress beneath her and kisses down his neck, over his nipples and bellybutton. She smirks at him one last time, before embracing him with her mouth. 

Bambam’s hand grip onto the sheets under him, flexing up his biceps and revealing the veins in his arm. He closes his eyes and grows in Gia’s mouth with every motion of her mouth. 

The night air fills with their moans until the early morning hours. Outside, the sun has started to rise when they finally fall asleep in each other’s arms. 

“Bro, just give it back to her when you see her.” Yugyeom says at the breakfast table. 

Bambam sneaked out of Gia’s room when he woke up at 11AM. He was starving so he ran back to their room and got changed to join Yugyeom for breakfast. 

“If she knows I had it, she might think I tricked her into sleeping with me…” Bambam admits and continues chewing on his cereal bowl.

“Weren’t you?” Yugyeom follows up curiously.

“No!” Bambam responds clearly offended that his friend would even think that of him. 

He really needs to give that book back to her. If she is taking it seriously, then he’s just stopping her from reaching her goal and he doesn’t want to be a thorn in her side. 

“You could just make it appear somewhere she might’ve left it behind.” Yugyeom suggests and is about to drink from his orange juice, when he spots Gia walking up and down the empty pool area. He points to her. “There she is. You could just give it to her right now.” 

Bambam turns to her and frowns. She’s wearing her hat and sunglasses again. It looks like she’s on the phone, but Bambam isn’t sure. 

“Are you kidding me?” Gia shouts down the phone, but immediately checks no one around her heard. “I told you to take care of it without me…” 

Bambam frowns and gets up from his spot. 

“I’ll be right back!” He says before grabbing the book and heading towards Gia. The closer he gets the more he notices the frown on her face and the flushes colour on her cheek.

Judging by the blush he’d seen on her last night, this one isn’t a positive one. He puts the book behind his back as he moves a couple more steps towards her. Her voice nothing like the one he’d heard whispering sweet nothings in his ear.

“Fix this. I don’t pay you to call me whenever you don’t know what to do.” Gia hangs up and stomps her foot in anger. She takes a seat on one of the chaise longue lining the pool and tries to focus on her breathing. 

Why does she need to deal with this every single day? Enzo is right, she should just turn it off or leave it in her room. Perhaps the key to happiness is being unreachable. Gia will have to try that out tomorrow, but right now she would much rather drown her phone thinking about the person who keeps calling her.

But she won’t. What if something actually happens at home and they can’t reach her? Gia shakes her head and breathes in deeply. She straightens out her shoulders and hears it crack a couple of times. Today, she will make time for a massage, she seems to be all tense despite her relaxing night-time activities from the night before. Or, well, earlier in the morning. 

Gia over to massage the part of her shoulder that seems especially tense, when she feels someone else’s hand on top of hers. She looks over her shoulder to find Bambam rubbing her sour muscle. 

“What are you doing?” She asks, still not fully in control of her tone.

“Just helping you out.” Bambam smiles at her brightly, but right now, she’s not really in the mood to smile or see anyone this happy. 

“You really don’t need to do that.” She shrugs off his hand and stands up crossing her arms over her chest. 

Bambam frowns but doesn’t try to reach out to her again. Instead he keeps his distance and tries to lighten up the mood a little bit. His grip on the book tightening behind his back.

“You sure do put on a show.” He jokes, but Gia doesn’t smile. “Do you wanna talk about-“

“Listen, we had a one-night-stand and we should leave it at that.” She blurts out and crunches her face in frustration. “That’s it. A fling. Casual sex. Whatever you want to call it.”

“Sure, but-“ Bambam tries to interject but she immediately cuts him off.

“You don’t need to do any of this. I’m fine.” She starts backing away. “You can go back to enjoying your holiday and I’ll go back to enjoying mine.” 

Without another glance, she heads back towards the lobby. Bambam knows she’s going to the bar, but he doesn’t follow her. The book is still behind his back. This definitely wasn’t the right moment to give it back to her.


	6. Chapter 6

“Say yes instead of no: be more spontaneous?” Yugyeom reads over Bambam’s shoulder. 

They had wentout around 10AM to play some basketball and just gotten back to the pool to cool down, before heading for brunch. Of course Bambam had to bring the book, since he can’t go anywhere without it. Yugyeom rolls his eyes, he thought they were meant to have a fabulous vacation just the two of them. Yugbam and all that gist. Right now it feels more like Yugyeom, Bambam and a self help book. 

“Ah careful, don’t get water on it.” Bambam jumps up and moves away from Yugyeom and his wet locks. 

To make a point he shakes them out like a dog and splashed water everywhere. Bambam does his best to shield the book. 

“What? Are you really using the book to get somewhere with her?” Yugyeom accuses Bambam point blank, causing Bambam’s mouth to open slightly. 

“What?” Bambam can’t believe his friend just suggested that. “Bro, no.” 

“Okay, if you say so.” Yugyeom grabs the towel and starts ruffling his hair. “It’s just weird that you haven’t given it back to her yet…” 

“I’m just waiting for the right time.” 

“To not seem suspicious…” Yugyeom adds more to himself as to Bambam, but the latter still sighs. 

Maybe his friend is right. Maybe he has been using this book to his advantage to have a better shot with her. He really needs to give it back to her, before he actually starts doing that. So far, he just wanted to help her with her goals, the things that came with that were genuine. To him at least… He hopes they were to her too.

“Should we get going?” Yugyeom asks but doesn’t wait for an answer. He heads over to the restaurant without checking if Bambam was following him or not. A little butt hurt by his best friend’s lack of interest in him…

Later that day, Yugyeom decides to go for a nap and leaves Bambam alone. To be honest, he just wants to go sulk a bit and hopes that Bambam comes to get him later for something fun. Little does he know that his friend is aimlessly running around the resort hoping to bump into Gia. Still debating whether he is being a douchebag or a good person.

Bambam walks past the spa and gym and tries to discreetly look in the windows at the machines, but he can’t spot her and moves on before he can be deemed a creep. He keeps walking around, checking every single bar on the property and finding no trace of her. When he arrives at her bungalow, the cleaners are inside, but again no sign of Gia. Maybe today fate doesn’t want them to meet.   
So, he heads down to the beach, hoping to find her there. 

Gia is sitting in the lobby with a glass of water. The staff members have shocked expressions on their faces at her new choice of beverage, wondering if she is feeling okay as they pass by. Word travelled quickly that a mad woman is residing in the resort. Mad women come every other month and provide great entertainment for everyone, because they just don’t give a fuck but are always friendly to the staff members. It’s refreshing compared to the guests who look down their noses at them. Mad women also tend to tip generously.

Gia has already established herself as the drunk mad woman with an expensive taste in men. The rumours about her and Bambam circulated within hours of the pair dancing together at salsa night and it spread like wildfire. The cleaners were whispering about it, as they stood in front of her room door where the “Do Not Disturb” sign was attached to the door handle. Filipe also kept an eye on them all night and described their energy as pure sexual passion to the receptionist that same night. 

It’s safe to say that everyone loves holiday maker drama, but they especially love it when a mad woman is involved in anything. Especially anything sexual. It’s better than any soap opera. 

If Gia knew they call her a mad woman, she would be 100% on board. Everyone knows a mad woman is the result of an even madder man. Actually going crazier after being called crazy for the millionth time. Becoming collateral in a man’s self centred story… Nothing Gia hasn’t seen happen to others around her before, but definitely something she never expected to happen to her. 

Running away is a mad woman’s specialty. Returning to raise hell is what Gia considers the ultimate state of a mad woman and she is working towards just that. Now if she could only find her book again so she can continue on her journey to become a bad bitch. Her phone rings, but Gia won’t know until later tonight, since she left it in her room. Something inside of her feels a lot more refreshed when her phone isn’t near. 

Probably the absence of all those 5G waves. Gia chuckles at the thought. Yeah right, she thinks. 

She focuses her attention back on her emails and scrolls through, ignoring every single one of them. She just opened the page to check if anything exciting pops out at her, but nothing catches her eye. Most of these are from her PR-manager and some from her co-worker, nothing she can’t deal with later… probably. Well, she stopped caring when she stepped on that plane.

She closes the app and switches to social media. On twitter her notifications seem to be blowing up, but she doesn’t have the energy to deal with that. So she pulls up the folder with all her nice bikini pictures and pulls her favourite one into Instagram. The least she can do, is let them all know she is alive and well. Whatever happens in the comments, is not her problem right now. Hell could freeze over and she would still be warm on her tropical island with a cocktail in hand. 

Not today though. Today she switched to water. After a very thorough and scary lecture from Enzo about the effects of alcohol on her liver and how she has been looking a little yellow eyed lately. Enzo was a little surprise that it worked when she ordered her water to go, but nonetheless he felt content. Saving a soul every other day. 

Bambam has sand still stuck to his feet in his slippers when he makes his way up to the lobby. He is cursing himself for spending almost two hours looking for her when he could have been doing other things. More fun things, but something inside him pulls him to her and he can’t stop it. When he thinks about her, his fingers tingle a little and something in his stomach starts to tickle. He refuses to acknowledge either of those things, but he can’t help wanting to be near her. 

Gia is trying to think of a clever caption when he spots her sitting there wearing her usual hat and sunglasses combo. She’s wearing a blue swimsuit today and sheer fabric loose jacket. He smiles at her beauty before almost running backwards and away from her. 

He rushes as fast as his feet take him without running, trying his best to avoid attracting any attention to himself. He doesn’t want her to run off again, when he only just found her. Since she didn’t really want to speak with him last time they separated, he doesn’t want to chance it.

“Enzo! My man!” Bambam exclaims cheerfully approaching the bar. Enzo turns around with a friendly and welcoming smile and throws his tea towel over his shoulder in a very bartender type of way. 

“What can I get you?” He asks already picking up two glasses, expecting one to be for his friend. 

“Can I get two strawberry Mojitos please?” Bambam requests brightly, before leaning on the bar. “Light on the Mojito, but heavy on the strawberry.” 

“A sweet kind of man. Coming right up.” Without another word Enzo gets down to work and makes up two almost virgin drinks, going extra light on the rum. 

Bambam swiftly carries the drinks out of the bar and into the lobby, after checking with Enzo that that would be alright. Of course he promised to bring back the glasses when they are done, so Enzo agreed.

The nervousness that she might’ve ran off again falls off his shoulders, when he steps back into the lobby and sees her sitting there laughing at a Youtube video of cats getting surprised by their humans. He stops for a second and takes a deep breath, collecting himself, before taking a step towards her. 

“You like cats too?” He says as an ice breaker, earning him a weird glance. 

Gia had been thinking about Bambam and how they last went separate ways. She actually meant to apologize to him for her outburst, he really did nothing wrong at the time. But it’s difficult to find anyone in this damned resort. So, she continues laughing at the video and nods her head. 

“Yeah, they are savage 90% of the time unless you catch them off guard. Then they look like this.” Gia turns her laptop around to show Bambam the cat she had paused the video on and it looks like it just witnessed a murder. Bambam chuckles and points to the free seat next to her on the couch. 

“May I?” Gia just nods and he sits down. “Here!” 

He puts down the drinks in front of her and smiles. Gia goes to object but Bambam beats her to it. 

“Don’t worry, I watched him. There’s like 10mml of rum in there. They are basically virgin.” He explains before putting the straw in his mouth. 

“How did you know I wasn’t drinking much today?” Gia asks confused, but she picks up the glass he brought for her. Bambam points to the water. 

“I saw that before going to the bar.” He reveals. “So what have you been up to these past few days?” 

“Actually…” 

She turns to face him and tries to smile at him sweetly, but instead ends up grimacing horribly. He tries not to laugh, but a small chuckle escapes him. She’s so cute, he thinks.

“You didn’t deserve the way I blew up on you the other day, I’m really sorry.” She speaks so quickly, Bambam almost missed it, but he’s sure he heard her right so he doesn’t make her repeat it. “I was really silly, wasn’t I?”

Admitting when you are wrong, lesson 5 of her self help book and now a new trait in her personality. To become more confident in one’s character, one must always realise when they did something wrong and apologize. One might not be forgiven, but at least they took the opportunity to learn. 

“You weren’t silly. Shit happens.” Bambam responds and clinks their glasses together. “Apology accepted.” 

Gia goes to close her laptop so she can focus on her conversation with him, but she checks the time first and gasps. 

“It’s 1:30PM already! I have a massage booked in ten minutes!” Gia closes her laptop. “Bambam, I’m really sorry.” She tries to drink as much of her drink as possible but only manages about two gulps, before getting a brain freeze. “I’m sure I’ll see you later.” 

“Meet me at the beach tonight.” Bambam tells her suddenly. 

“What? Why?” Gia asks confused at the sudden suggestion. 

“Just because. We can go skinny dipping…” Bambam suggests a cheeky grin on his face. “Or just explore a little bit under the moonlight.” 

“That sounds very romantic, but no thanks.” Gia responds and gets up form her spot on the couch. She takes a hold of her laptop and goes to leave, but Bambam gets up abruptly. 

“Come on! Be more spontaneous!” Bambam shouts after her and she immediately stops in her tracks. 

Gia swallows and takes a deep breath. Spontaneous. She does need to be less uptight… but with him? Didn’t she swear it was a one-time thing the other night? She shakes her head trying to find some clarity. Why the hell did he have to use that specific word? Now she feels like if she doesn’t accept, she’ll just be moving ten steps back in her self help book. She quickly takes a mental note to actually continue searching for that. 

She turns around on her heels and brings her hands together in front of her hips, holding her laptop tightly. 

“Fine. 11PM. Beach front.” She winks at him, then walks away with a happy smile on her face, but she clears her throat and returns to her neutral expression. 

Behind her Bambam is grinning ear to ear and already rushing to the lobby to make extravagant arrangements.


	7. Chapter 7

Gia decide to wear a light summer dress tonight, since she fully expected just a walk under the moonlight. But when she rocks up to the beach she is greeted with a lantern pathway that leads her to a specially set up tent. Gia is unsure if this is for them, so she doesn’t go inside and just looks up and down the beach hoping to spot him in the distance. If he did all this, then she’ll probably fall in love with him on the spot. 

Bambam pushes aside the fabric that serves as a door. Gia jumps back in surprise and shrieks a little, but catches herself before she can fall over in the sand. In this light he looks absolutely stunning and it takes her breath away for a second. The silk black shirt and the white suit trousers make him look so expensive, she’s worried about even touching him.

He smirks, noticing her checking him out and holds out his hand for her to join him. She doesn’t even hesitate a second and lets him pull her inside. 

She isn’t sure what she expected there to be in the tent, but it wasn’t a fully functional and draped bed with a beautiful mosquito net hanging over it. Nor was it the romantic lanterns that had also been outside, lighting up the space in a warm candle like light. And mostly, she didn’t expect there to be a whole cheese plate. She is probably the most excited about the cheese plate and the wine set on a small table in the corner. 

“When did you do all this?” Gia says absolutely blown away by the effort level. Her heart skips a beat and she has to remind herself that her holiday won’t last forever and she might never see him again. 

“I pulled some strings.” He responds with a satisfied smirk on his face. Seeing her so flabbergasted made the stressful afternoon worth it, but he will definitely have to spend some quality time with his best friend tomorrow. He has been neglecting him too much latterly. 

Gia walks over to the cheese board and uses a toothpick to pick up a piece and put it in her mouth. She moans at the intensity of the cheese. 

“Honestly, this is amazing.” She brushes her hand off the silky sheets on the bed, her mind already wandering to things they could do on it later. 

Bambam reaches behind one of the pillows and pulls out her book. He has thought about this long and hard all day and came to the conclusion that it’s better to give it back to her quickly or else she might read into it, like Yugyeom did. So, despite being nervous about it he hands it over to her silently. 

Gia frowns. “Where did you get that?” She asks calmly, the feelings of happiness becoming more fleeting now.

“When I hit you with the volleyball, you left it behind.” He responds shyly, some confidence gone. “I’ve been meaning to give it back to you.” 

“You had it this whole time?” She continues still confused. 

She starts putting the pieces together. First, he tells her to be more confident and then he tells her to be more spontaneous… She picks up the book to confirm her theory and checks the post its she’d left. A part of her wants to be wrong so bad. Please don’t let this guy have played me, she thinks. But the notes in her book don’t tell lies. 

“Did you… use this to get me into bed with you?” 

“No!” Bambam defends himself. “I would never-“

“But you used this to talk me into coming here. And what did you expect to happen tonight?” Gia gestures to everything around her, the cheese now leaving a bitter aftertaste in her mouth. “I’m sure it wasn’t all innocent.” 

“If you just let me explain.” 

“I don’t want you to explain.” She mutters angrily, unsure if her anger is directed at him or at herself for letting herself be fooled like this. The anger almost instantly turns to sadness at the thought that this tent wasn’t just a romantic gesture. 

She takes a step towards the door. He blocks her path. 

“You’re right, I read your notes in there.” He explains, but she tries to step around him. He moves with her blocking her way again. “You’re also right that I knew more about you, than I let on.” 

“You’re not helping yourself right now…” She mumbles and clenches her jaw, but fine, she will hear him out. 

“You’re right, but I didn’t do it to sleep with you.” She frowns at the urgency in his voice, again almost falling for it. But she won’t be fooled twice. He continues. “Your first post-it is on a page called Love yourself by yourself.”

“How to love yourself by yourself, but yes.” She corrects him. 

“Yes, that one.” He tries to meet her gaze but she is avoiding it like the plague. If she looked at him, she would see how sorry he is in his eyes. “How are you meant to know how to treat yourself better when no one ever showed you how others are supposed to treat you?” 

Gia looks up surprised by the rawness in his voice. It almost sounds like he is getting upset thinking about her being vulnerable to her own thoughts. She catches his eyes sparkling in the light of the lanterns, mirroring her pain right back at her. 

“This is how you’re supposed to be treated by the people you let into your heart.” He says carefully not to upset her more. 

He knows, that he already kind of fucked up with the book, but he surely won’t fuck up his explanation. If she wants to stay mad after that, he’ll accept it. He can’t control that, but he’ll be damned if he doesn’t at least try to tell her his intentions weren’t bad. 

“I don’t know what exactly you’re running away from, but whatever it is, it’s not standing in your way right now.” He pauses. “You are.” Bambam points to the tent all around himself. “All of this, it’s extra, but this is just an example of what you should expect from someone who is trying to impress you. If you let anyone make you think you deserve any less than their best effort, than you are really just telling yourself you aren’t worth it.” 

“Bambam-“ She starts but he cuts her off by moving his finger from the tent to his chest. 

“If anyone ever manages to make you feel inferior to them, then that isn’t them. That’s you letting them shake your confidence in here.” He finishes and drops his hand. “You’re beautiful, you’re smart, and I would love to get to know if we had more time. Give yourself a chance to succeed and accept the things others do for you.” 

Gia listens to every word he says intently. His tone seems so genuine that the little anger she had in her about the book suddenly completely boils down. He’s right. The only person stopping her from being confident and loving herself, is her. It doesn’t matter what others say or what they whisper when she walks by. It doesn’t matter what they write about her in the press or the internet, because she knows what’s true and the people she loves knows what’s true. She just has to trust herself to stay humble and confident. 

“I didn’t mean to deceive you. I just wanted to help you get there faster…” He admits and drops his gaze to the ground.

Gia feels something wet roll down her cheek. She realizes that she started crying at some point during his little speech and quickly wipes her tears away. She smiles through it and finally looks him in the eyes again. 

“Let’s go.” She picks up her pace and grabs his hand on her way out of the tent. 

Before Bambam can ask what she’s doing, Gia starts stepping out of her dress. He quickly catches on and begins stripping himself until they are both at the waterfront completely naked. Neither checked to see that they were alone, too in the moment to care. Bambam takes her hand and interlaces their fingers. The moonlight makes her eyes shine brighter and he has a hard time looking away. He curses himself for not even being able to look down, because her eyes are so mesmerizing. 

She steps in the water and winces at the cold, but doesn’t stop, pulling him in with her. 

Bambam runs towards her and drags her down into the water with him. Gia screams but is immediately hit by a wave. They both resurface laughing and splashing each other. Gia wishes this night would never end. Despite the rocky start, she understands him better now and the book didn’t say anything about getting emotionally attached to your casual one-night-stand partner. It just said no to an exclusive relationship. She’s really milking it now. 

“You’ll really need to make it up to me, tonight.” Gia looks Bambam dead in the eyes, the moonlight lighting up his face just enough for her to see his reaction. 

His eyes widen at first and when he realises she isn’t joking, something in them shifts and they fill up with a fire that matches the smirk that’s forming on his lips. She might regret what she said really soon, but the excitement that rushes through her veins seeing the way he is looking at her right now and coming closer slowly is worth it. 

“I can arrange that.” He whispers before placing his lips on hers. They are cold and taste like salt from the water, but the softness of his touch makes all her worries go away. 

Bambam doesn’t touch her anywhere else, just moves his lips gently on hers, teasing her to want more and waiting for her to make the next move. Enjoying the romance of it, Gia leans into the kiss a little more. She takes the initiative to deepen the kiss and reaches her hands up to place them on his shoulders. One hand immediately moves around his neck and to the bottom of his hairline pulling him in closer. 

He takes this as his cue to continue and wraps his arms around her waist. He doesn’t waste much more time in the water, knowing well that this isn’t the best place to do anything beyond kissing. So, he picks her up by the waist and makes his way out of the water towards the tent. Again, neither check to see if anyone is walking by and they still couldn’t care less. 

Bambam pushes the fabric aside and throws her onto the bed. Their clothes already long gone he takes her in from her legs to her face and winces at the rush that suddenly fills his body. He quickly hooks the two fabrics together to close their door and lowers the lantern control switch, so they can still see each other, but the mood changes. 

Gia can’t take it any long and moves down the bed to pull him on top of her. She instantly switches their positions so she is on top, but not this time. Bambam has other ideas and he still has to make it up to her after all. 

So, he switches them back around and pins her hands above her head. She gasps, mixed with a bit of a moan at the sudden movement, causing him to smirk. He uses his other hand to trace fine lines over her breasts and around her nipples, earning himself another sharp breath. He leans down and replaces his fingers with his mouth, engulfing it with his lips and sucking lightly. 

His fingers trace down her stomach and onto her thigh. She doesn’t know what part to focus on, feeling suddenly overwhelmed with the stimulation. His mouth on her breast and his hand so close to where she wants it to me, she is struggling to keep her head clear. All she can think about are his fingers on her thigh and how she really wants to beg him to move them closer. Just a little. 

Bambam blows on her nipple and licks his way to the other one with a low chuckle, as Gia’s thigh begins trembling in anticipation under his touch. He moves his fingers up slowly, while his mouth is now busy with her other nipple, biting it slightly. Gia moans lowly, almost completely at his mercy now. His hands inching closer and closer, until he finally reaches her. 

Gia holds her breath and he leans back to look at her. Satisfied with the look on her face as she stares back at him, all hot and flushed, he lets a finger slip in. He moves slowly, but he knows exactly how to curl his fingers to cause her to instantly forget her own name.

Bambam leans down to kiss her and bites her lip while pulling back again. He moves to her ear and his voice sounds dark: “This is how you’re supposed to be treated.”


	8. Chapter 8

Gia stretches her arms out, slowly waking up from something bright lighting up the room. She can’t sleep unless the room is pitch black, so the lantern flicker irritates her slumber. She moves Bambam’s arm off her waist and sits up straight, her eyes still closed. Maybe she can reach the switch without opening her eyes, if she can remember where it actually is. Bambam was the one to dim the lights last night and Gia is pretty sure that was right next to the door.

So she steps onto the sand, unsure what time it is, and goes over slowly not to fall over. As she moves further away from the bed, she feels the air become crispier with heat and she frowns with her eyes remaining shut. Annoyed that she’ll have to open them now, she rubs them and slowly lets her lids lift up. 

Bambam jumps up at the sound of her scream, before she grabs the sheet off the bed and wraps it around her body. 

“Shit!” He curses at the sight of the small table, where the cheese had been, caught on fire. The lantern must’ve overheated over night and caused the fire to start. 

“What should we do?” Gia looks around the tent for anything that can hold enough water to turn off the fire. Thankfully the flames aren’t too big and haven’t reached the actual tent yet, otherwise it would all just light up faster than a Christmas tree on Christmas morning. 

She spots the ice bucket with the still full champagne bottle, they never got to drink last night, in it. She picks it up, removes the bottle and dumps the water from the melted ice on the fire. Then she holds the bucket out to Bambam. 

“What?” He asks in confusion. 

“Get some ocean water.” Gia tells him with an urgency in her voice. Bambam looks down at his naked body. 

“Like this?” He can’t go out naked and his boxers are lying right next to the fire. Bambam is many things, but he isn’t stupid enough to go near an open flame solely to cover up. 

“Fine! I’ll do it.” Gia responds and wraps the sheet around her body tightly. She holds up the hem like a dress and throws the fabric open. 

On the horizon the sun is rising, creating a beautiful light orange to blue morning sky. If it weren’t for the fire in their tent, Gia would stop and stare, but not even the two people getting their morning exercise along the beach front can stop her from getting that water. She smiles and nods at them in greeting, before stepping right in the ocean. 

She dips the bucket in, but it becomes too heavy for her to carry it with one hand only. So she lets go of her sheet dress, but the water pulls it down. She tries her best to keep it on her body and starts crouching down, but the lower she goes, the wetter the sheet becomes and the heavier it feels. She will not be naked in front of two joggers and the beach cleaning staff. At least not today. 

With sheer determination, Gia manages to lift up the full ice bucket and hugs it to her chest like a teddy bear. Two birds, one stone. Now the sheet might be heavy and about to be dragged through the sand, but it will definitely stay up. Bambam peeks out of the curtains and holds it open for her as she steps back into the tent. 

“Thanks.” Gia says sarcastically. 

She dumps the salt water on the fire that had since gotten smaller. She notices sand lying all over the remains of the table and turns to Bambam.

“Did you throw sand at the fire?” Gia starts laughing. “Not bad.” 

“I tried suffocating it.” Bambam explains, unsure if she is laughing at him or laughing because it’s a smart idea. “I risked my life doing that.” 

Gia waits a second to make sure the fire really is out before moving the table away from the clearly damaged lantern. 

“You did well. I’m glad you didn’t burn to death.” Gia jokes and shoots him a sweet smile paired with a wink. “Turn off the switch please. We don’t want that to happen again.” 

Bambam does as he is told, but is hit in the face with his boxer shorts. Gia grins at him and drops her dirty and wet sheet. She pulls on her dress without her underwear and sits down on the bed, letting her eyes shut again. She leans back into the pillows and remembers how well she slept before the fire woke her up. 

“I think I need to hide from the resort staff for a while.” She mumbles almost asleep again. He lies down next to her and puts his arm around her waist again. 

“Why?” He whispers in her ear groggily. 

“I can never face Enzo again.” She responds, but neither say another word as they drift off into their dreams almost immediately. 

Gia is freshening up in her bathroom, trying to decide whether the fire was a dream or not. Since she saw the evidence, once they woke up again, she can’t really deny it, but it does still feel like a fever dream. After taking a nice hot bath, she finally feels clean again. She shudders at the memory of the wet sheet clinging to her legs as she tried to make her way back to the tent quickly. If only she could’ve enjoyed the sunrise, that would have been so romantic. 

She splashes her face with cold water. Hopefully those joggers will never cross her path again. Seeing her walk of shame is one thing, but seeing her walk of shame in a sheet running straight into the ocean without an explanation is worse. So hopefully, their holiday is over today and they are already back at the airport never to be seen again. 

One can only hope. Despite the embarrassment, Gia agreed to meet Bambam and his friend Yugyeom for a game of tennis. So she puts on another pair of sunglasses and a baseball hat for a change, with the intention of going full incognito. Who is she kidding? Everyone has already memorized her face from the tempter tantrums she throws whenever her PR-manager calls her. There’s no way a pair of glasses and a hat would help her be undercover. 

Maybe if she paired it with a fake moustache… For a second, she seriously considers it and starts thinking about a place where she could purchase one. Idiot, she thinks to herself, just face it like a bad bitch. 

Suddenly, Bambam’s words flood her mind and she remembers the way he wanted to show her what it’s like to feel special and appreciated. His efforts astonished her and she still has to fight the urge to think she doesn’t deserve that much kindness. But she does. She deserves the world and it’s about time she keeps reminding herself of that. 

So she holds her head up high. She will show everyone that she has nothing to be ashamed of. So what if she had casual sex on the beach? She managed to bag a really hot guy on her holiday and they’ve been enjoying each other’s company. The confidence boost from that alone brings a smile to her face. She almost doesn’t notice the two cleaning staff walking past and whispering about her. 

Key word, almost. She cringes thinking about the things they must be saying about her. Whatever it is, it can’t be worse than what she would’ve called herself only a couple of months ago. So she cuts herself some slack and keeps marching on to the tennis courts. 

Yugyeom and Bambam are already hitting the ball back and forth in a very intense and competitive match. Neither of them very good at the sport, but determined to win. Gia steps onto the court and heads straight for the referee seat. 

“Look who finally got ready.” Bambam shouts to her, but doesn’t look her way, too focused on beating Yugyeom. 

“Who’s winning?” Gia asks from her seat, enjoying the view of two attractive men sweating. 

“I am!” Yugyeom shouts back and waves at her cheerfully. “Hi, Gia.”

“Hi, Yugyeom!” 

Bambam uses the distraction to his advantage and hits the ball extra hard. He gets the point and celebrates with a loud cheer. Yugyeom frowns. 

“That was cheating!” 

“I didn’t cheat, it’s not my fault you got distracted.” Bambam shrugs with a smirk on his face. 

“Gia, back me up here!” Yugyeom asks desperately. 

“Sorry, no can do.” Gia admits. “You snooze… you lose?” 

“I hate both of you.” He jokes in response. “Come on, you got the serve.” Yugyeom shouts across the court in frustration. 

Behind them a golf cart carries some guests down to the court next to theirs. At first Gia doesn’t pay them any attention, but once they get off and start warming up, she notices their glances. Curiously, she pushes the sunglasses up her nose to get a better view and to her surprise, the guests she had so desperately hoped were already on a plane out of here, are standing staring at her on the next court. 

Gia bites her lips and tries to crouch down under her hat, but the fact she is sitting on an elevated chair, probably doesn’t help her hide. She quickly shuffles down, trying to make it look as nonchalant as possible, before rushing over behind Bambam.

“Let me play.” Gia asks urgently. 

“We are almost done, just wait.” Bambam responds, keeping his eye on the ball, but Gia doesn’t back off, doing her best to stay hidden behind him as much as possible. 

“Come on! Please.” Gia whisper shouts at him and he turns to look at her quickly losing focus. 

Before they know it, Yugyeom hits the ball back onto their side of the court. Gia tries to jump out of the way, but it’s all too late. The ball slams against her diaphragm hard. The wind gets knocked out of her and she pushes down on the spot between her ribs, trying her best not to cry out in pain. 

When she finally manages to catch a breath again, she drops to the floor into a table top position. She lies her head on the ground. Yugyeom drops his racket and runs over to the other side. 

“Oh shit, I’m so sorry.” He kneels down next to Bambam who has his hand on Gia’s back. “Are you okay?” 

Gia holds out one hand without lifting her head and gives him a thumbs up, but her jacked breathing is telling another story. 

“What do we do?” Yugyeom asks Bambam, who seems to be the epitome of tranquillity right now. 

“She just needs to breathe normally again, nothing we can do.” He responds quietly. Yugyeom is really confused but doesn’t say anything. “Grab some water from my bag.” Yugyeom gets up straight away and runs over to fulfill the request. 

Gia sits back on her heels and exhales deeply, the movement hurting her ribs a little bit. Worried about the consequences of the impact, she lifts up her t-shirt to reveal her stomach and sports bra. 

Right below where her ribcage forms a little arch, the skin is bright red. A fiery red, that reminds Bambam of the fire that morning. He chuckles, but immediately stops when she glares at him. 

“This looks like it’ll bruise.” Gia says pressing down on it a little bit and wincing. “What is it with you guys and hitting me in the stomach with balls?” 

Yugyeom comes back with the water bottle and hands it to her. 

“I’m really sorry, Gia…” He apologizes sincerely and the regret in his eyes almost makes her want to hug him.

“It’s not like you did it on purpose.” Gia goes to take a sip of the water, but stops midway. “You didn’t, right?” She jokes.

“Of course not!” Yugyeom chuckles nervously. 

The bruise is turning all sorts of colours as they speak, but at least those guests had something new to talk about. Being the girl who got attacked by a tennis ball is much better than being the girl who ran out into the ocean wearing nothing but a bed sheet.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For xmas, I really wanted to finish this fic! So I'm posting two chapters today and the final two tomorrow! Hope you guys enjoy it.

The whispers became so unbearable, Bambam decides to take Gia out to the local mall for the day. Neither of them speaks the local language, so Yugyeom has to gesture to the pharmacist that they need some cream to help her with the bruise on her stomach. 

However, the gestures he chooses make it seem like she either has indigestion or needs a morning after pill from her crazy night with the two gentlemen. Either way, the pharmacist has seen and heard much stranger thing than a holiday threesome and puts down both: a box of gaviscon and the plan b. Yugyeom blushes and pushes them towards him again, before anyone can see them, but Gia starts laughing.

“What the hell did you tell him?” She asks and winks. “Not… pregnant.” Gia makes her hands form a pregnant belly, before she crosses her arms to form an X. She then points to the morning after pill and shakes her head. 

The pharmacist seems to understand her and just hums in agreement, before picking up the box of gaviscon, but Gia wiggles her index finger left and right. 

“No, not that either.” Gia sighs, trying to think how to explain. “Yugyeom pretend to play tennis. Bambam!” She shouts to the back of the pharmacy, where Bambam is checking out some face creams. 

He looks up and catches her waving him over. 

“Sup?” He asks.

“Pretend to play tennis with Yugyeom.” 

“What?” He chuckles.

“Just do it.” 

Yugyeom pretends to serve and Bambam is unsure if he should get involved or run for the hills, but Gia’s glare makes him pick up his imaginery racket and hit the non-existent ball right back at his friend. 

“Tennis?” She asks, hoping the word is universal and the pharmacist nods in confusion. Gia points to the invisible ball by moving her hand between the two as they continue looking insanely silly. “The ball…” Then she brings the ball over to her stomach and pushes herself back, wincing at the impact on the bruise. “…ouch.” 

The pharmacist frowns, unable to follow.

“Oh my god, I speak four languages and here I am using gestures.” In her frustration, Gia grabs the hem of her t-shirt and lifts it up revealing the now purple and red bruise. At first the pharmacist looks away, thinking she is about to flash him and Yugyeom’s mouth falls open.   
“Ah!” The pharmacist exclaims and turns around to grab the first thing on the shelf behind him. “This... help.” He tries to speak broken English and Gia nods at him thankfully. 

“Perfect!” She gets her wallet out, but Yugyeom stops her. 

“I caused the injury, I should get this one.” He puts the bills on the counter and grabs the cream. “Thank you.” He says to the pharmacist and heads out. 

The other two follow him, but stay a couple of feet behind him. Bambam leans down to whisper in her ear. 

“Look at how your confidence has gone up, since meeting me.” He winks and she huffs, before pushing him in the side. 

“Are you taking credit for that?” 

“Of course.” He responds, before picking up the pace and throwing his arm around Yugyeom’s shoulders. 

He glances back at her to see her smiling down at her hands with a light blush on her face. If they didn’t have an expiration date, he might let himself think about how cute her smile is and how it makes his heart skip a beat. He turns to face the front again, but snaps his head back. 

The way she’s smiling at the ground after he complimented her seems familiar. An image barges into Bambam’s mind, but he doesn’t know where to place it in his memory. Gia looks a bit younger and smaller, like he’s looking down on her from somewhere. Her face looks rosy in his memory, just like it is now and her smile seems so sweet… He frowns. 

“Bro.” He calls Yugyeom quietly, the latter turns his head. “Are you sure you’ve never seen her before?” 

Yugyeom looks back just as Gia lifts her gaze up from the ground. She crunches up her nose and raises her eyebrows at them, wondering why they were staring at her suspiciously. 

“Stop looking at me like that.” Gia holds up her hand to hid behind them. 

“I don’t think so, no…” Yugyeom responds chuckling. “Maybe you saw her in your dreams.” Bambam slaps Yugyeom’s arm and lets him go. 

“What are you two talking about?” Gia squeezes in-between them with a grin. 

“Yugyeom was just saying you should probably put the cream on soon.” Bambam lies.

“No I wasn’t.” Gia turns her to head to Yugyeom, so she doesn’t see Bambam’s facial expression trying to stop Yugyeom from saying anything. “Bambam was just asking if you look familiar to me too.” 

Yugyeom loevs teasing Bambam. Especially after he tricked him into going on a holiday together only for him to ditch him for most of it. 

“We don’t know each other.” Gia responds very quickly and reaches for the cream in Yugyeom’s hand. “I’m gonna go put that on in the bathroom.” She doesn’t meet their gazes and just wanders off for the bathroom.

“Bro! What the heck?” Bambam asks, the annoyance showing in his face.

“What?” 

In the bathroom, Gia leans onto the sink counter and stares at herself in the mirror. She had hoped he wouldn’t recognize her. The fact hardly anybody in the resort immediately knew who she is, has been so refreshing and nice. She doesn’t want that to end. 

She didn’t run away from home in a first quarter life crisis for others to judge her just because they saw her in a movie before. It’s not even like her career is insane or she won an Oscar, but her affiliations have surely pushed the image people have of her. And if possible, she would like to pretend that problem doesn’t exist and she is a nobody on a tropical island. 

Oh, how I wish I had a drink right now, she thinks. She wonders if Enzo is just pretending or if he actually has no clue who she is. There were some of the younger cleaning ladies before, that had come up to her to ask for an autograph and she had sworn them to secrecy. 

She splashes her face with some water to cool down from the blood that’s rushing to feed her racing mind. It’ll be fine. He won’t recognize her and they’ll go their separate ways next week. It’ll be like they never met. 

“Come on, this is fun!” Bambam screams over the loud music in their Zumba class. 

Of course, he is a natural at this. The way he is trying to hype her up and cheering on everyone around him makes it hard for Gia to continue loathing the class. She feels so stupid lifting her arms and moving her hips and clapping whenever she is told to, but Bambam is loving it. The instructor even asked them to come to the front so he can motivate the other women. 

The demographic in this class is mostly above the age of 40 and the two of them. Not that Gia is judging anyone here for enjoying the Zumba class, she just isn’t a fan of it. 

“I can’t believe you convinced me to do this.” She complains, but tries to match the foot movements the instructor is demonstrating in the front. She clumsily almost falls flat on her ass, causing Bambam to laugh out loud to the point he needs to hold his stomach. 

Gia only promised to try it out, so she could run off any time, but seeing his face light up and hearing the way everyone is in a better mood thanks to his cheerfulness, makes her want to stay forever. He really did turn her holiday around. 

Before she met him, she was so focused on wallowing in self pity and being a grumpy part time drunk, whom even the bartenders were seriously worried about. But now, smiling is a little easier, cutting herself some slack comes more naturally and allowing herself to really just feel what she needs to feel until she can move on is starting to become the new coping mechanism. The urge to run away is slowly dying within her and maybe he really did manage to fix her in such a short time. 

Her heart fills with warmth, or maybe that’s just the bruise on her stomach, which she had almost completely forgotten about while having fun. But her body surely didn’t forget about it, as it shoots pain through her midriff like a lightning bolt hitting a tree and setting it on fire. 

Gia doubles over in pain, the movement causing the muscles underneath to hurt even more. Bambam’s smile drops and he leaves his spot in the formation. 

“Are you okay?” He asks her, but Gia just stares at him with wide eyes trying to stretch it out without hurting more. 

“I think I’m gonna throw up.” She frowns almost as if she were considering it for a second, but then she bites her lips. “Nope, I definitely am.” 

Before she can properly gag, Gia runs out of the dance studio. The music cuts out and the instructor places her hand on Bambam’s shoulder, asking if everything is alright. But Bambam’s eyes aren’t focusing on her and his ears are filled with a ringing noise. 

He knows her. He’s definitely seen her before and now he finally knows where. His brain plays back the scene like a movie, that day on their tour in Germany, when he decided to hand a rose out to a fan in the crowd.

He stepped down from the stage and walked through the rows slowly considering, whom to offer his one rose to. Through the speakers, JB told him to hurry up since they don’t have all day and he joked that there were too many pretty ladies here tonight. He couldn’t choose, until he saw her standing there.

She looked younger than, it had been at least four years now. Now, the baby fat on her cheeks vanished, but back then she had cute chubby-ish cheeks. Bambam smirks and directs his finger gun at her. Everyone around them cheers, but the jealous expressions on their faces couldn’t really be hidden. Of course, they all would’ve loved the rose, but he only had one. 

He approaches her doing a little dance move on the way, not noticing her face turn extremely pale at the sight of him coming closer. The shock and anxiety must’ve gotten the best of her, because once Bambam got into her 1-meter radius, she turns away from him and tries her best to aim as far from him as possible. 

Crouched over, Gia’s cheeks turn bright red in embarrassment. The whole arena goes quiet, some people gasp and some others jump away from her. On stage, some shocked oh my gods can be heard being murmured into their mics, but down here in the crowd, Bambam was horrified. He wanted to come up with something to cover up what just happened and save her the embarrassment, but there were so many cameras facing her way now, there was no way this will stay off the internet. He felt kind of bad for her, since she did throw up because of him. 

So he did the only plausible thing there is to do to attract attention. He started singing horribly into the mic until his group mates caught on and joined in. He then helped the staff members gather her things and placed the rose in her bag, before watching them go. 

The fans who sat around her were pinching their noses and Gia made a promise to herself that night: never ever meet GOT7 again.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas Eve!

Gia is splashing water in her face after she managed to stop herself from throwing up. The movement and the pain combined must’ve made her stomach decide it had enough. Perhaps some rest would be the best thing to do right now. She rubs some water at the back of her neck, trying to get her body to cool down faster. How did he convince her to do a Zumba class with him? She must really like this guy… 

When she finally comes out of the bathroom, Bambam feels like he’s been leaning against the opposite wall for twenty minutes. But Gia doesn’t see him. She’S too busy wiping her hands on her shorts and looking at the ground. 

He walks after her for a while quietly, wondering how to best approach the situation. She is probably really embarrassed about it all, but it’s too funny for him not to bring up. 

“That was you?” He steps up close enough to her that he doesn’t need to raise his voice for her to hear him. Gia jumps in surprise and holds her hand to her chest. 

“Gosh, you scared me.” Gia stops walking and catches her breath. “What was me?” 

“Germany. 2016.” Bambam smirks. 

Gia is immediately sucked into the worst possible flashback of her life. That was a dark day for her. A day she would rather forget forever. 

“That’s the one you had to remember? Seriously?” Gia whines disgusted at the memory. 

She had pushed that one down so far down a rabbit hole, that she can’t even bring herself to think about it too long. It was by far one of the most embarrassing moments of her life. Gia had been a fan for a couple of years now and just wanted to have a good time. Since she was so nervous all day about finally seeing her favourite group, she ate like crazy. And when she says crazy, she means crazy. 

A mix of carbs, fat, oily, candy, ice cream and milkshakes types of crazy foods were consumed that day from the crack of dawn. All of that was obviously going to create some sort of reaction, but Gia didn’t expect it all to happen that way and in that situation. 

“I get if I wasn’t your favourite member, but throwing up on me?” Bambam jokes, but Gia is horrified. 

“No!” She yells at him, but immediately lowers the volume of her voice which only amuses Bambam more. “That wasn’t it! I just ate too much that day and started feeling sick. I was really nervous.” 

“Nervous about what?” 

“I just never got to see you guys live before and I was kinda obsessed then.” Gia admits just blurting out the truth now. What’s the point in hiding it anymore when he already knows anyway? Then the realisation hits her like a truck. “Please don’t tell Yugyeom.” 

Gia stares at him a pleading look on her face. She is ready to get down on her knees and beg him to never tell another soul that it was her that day. If he stays quiet, she would literally do anything. She had been lucky enough that no one had realised it was her for almost three years now and it wasn’t Bambam who would ruin that. If the fans didn’t figure it out by now, then they never will unless they are pointed towards it. 

“Maybe I should. He’d love this.” Bambam pretends to leave to go tell him, but Gia grabs his arm and pulls him back towards the corner where no one can see them.

“Please…” Gia whispers shyly, causing Bambam’s eyes to soften a bit and the grin to disappear. “I should’ve told you about that, but I just… I didn’t think it was that important.” 

Bambam sighs, but chuckles again. “I can’t believe that was you.” 

“When you said you recognized me from somewhere,” she starts and looks away. “I didn’t think that was what you meant.” 

“Have we met another time?” Bambam frowns, trying to run her face through his mind like a police sketch through the criminal database, but coming up with nothing but that one memory at the concert. 

Gia relaxes a bit, the embarrassment slowly disappearing from her cheeks. She waits for him to stop frowning, but he looks so deep in thought that might never happen. So she reaches over to him and smooths out the wrinkles that formed on his forehead. 

“Last year…” Gia recalls the day like it was yesterday. 

The festival had just started and she was the official host. For the first time in her career, she had been asked to host a full event by herself. Which might not seem that big of a deal to other people, but it definitely boosted her confidence like crazy. The charity concert had two parts: the performance and an interview on the smaller stage. Gia’s job was to announce the performances and then head over to the smaller stage to interview the following acts. 

GOT7 was performing that festival and Gia had been insanely nervous to face them again, thinking they might remember her. But when she stepped on stage to greet them, neither of them seemed to even recognize her the slightest. Relief flooded her body and she spent the next thirty minutes doing a Q&A and some fun games with them. 

That day, when she finally mustered up the courage to ask them to sign her album for her, she spent five minutes talking to Bambam about their matching shoes. 

“I was a rookie actress back then and didn’t expect you guys to really talk to me much. But you spent five minutes complimenting my outfit.” Gia reveals. “To be honest, I was really worried about hosting the event and you kinda managed to make me feel at ease.” 

Bambam is quiet for a bit, unsure if he remembers that interaction at all. But it meant enough to her to be stuck in her mind until now. He doesn’t know how to respond to that. He had a positive impact on her then and now he is trying to help her again. What a strange coincidence. 

“Is Gia your real name?” He suddenly asks while looking at every feature of her face. Seeing the way her eyes widen, he knows he hit the nail on the head. 

Gia steps back and puts her head in her hands. She’s made it this far with the truth, she probably shouldn’t stop now. She’s had almost two weeks of anonymity and all good things must come to an end eventually. She just hoped this one wouldn’t ever end, it was the best thing after all. 

“Giovanna Ricci.” She whispers. “My name is Giovanna Ricci.” Gia drops her hands back to her sides and holds on out to shake his. She bites her lips but then smiles at him brightly. “Nice to meet you again.” 

The name rings fifty bells in Bambam’s head and he instantly remembers the headlines he’s seen. The hashtags that kept coming up on his twitter timeline and even the news reports. The tragic downfall of Giovanna Ricci had been all over his social media and yet he didn’t actually recognize her. They’d met before as well. Bambam feels like such an idiot right now. He reaches to shake her hand.

“I saw your movie four months ago.” He blurts out and nods in confusion. “I must be really bad with faces.” 

Gia laughs. “I am a little mad that you remember the nauseous fan over the movie star.” 

For a minute they just stand there and laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation. Gia had spent over two weeks undercover and just letting herself drift along, but she suddenly feels a sense of peace. Someone knows who she is and didn’t look at her with pitiful eyes. Someone knows her and isn’t inclined to just insult her to her face because of something they don’t actually know about. 

“No wonder you ran away…” Bambam mumbles with a reassuring smile and Gia tries her best not to let herself open up more, because that would open the water gates.

“Yeah…” Gia agrees but sighs and shrugs. “But I got to meet you and there’s worse things in the world than what happened to me.” 

“I sorta ran away too…” Bambam admits and chuckles. “But I dragged my friend with me under the false pretence of a vacation.” 

Gia raises her eyebrows curiously at the sudden shift in his mood. The usually bubbly Bambam is nowhere to be found and his features looks tired and sad. No matter how much someone hides their feelings, they always end up coming to light. No one ever truly knows what’s going on with another person until they allow you to really see the person beyond the mask. Bambam had been so versed in his persona, that sometimes he forgets to take it off when the spotlight isn’t on him anymore. Gia understands that all too well. 

“You know, running away isn’t that bad. We can always run back home.” Gia reassures him and places her hand on his shoulder. “Whatever the reason, running away for a little can help clear your mind.” 

“What about you? Will you go back?” Bambam asks suddenly. Maybe a part of him liked staying here, because he felt that Gia was going through something similar than him so he felt less alone.

“I don’t know.” Gia shrugs and gives him a shaky smile. “We all have to go home eventually. Gotta face the storm.” 

“Your storm is more like a hurricane.” 

“But it’s my hurricane to weather.” Gia thinks carefully whether to continue. Vocalising her pain will make it real and she already has a hard time dealing with it as is. “My hurricane, no matter how strong and wild, isn’t my fault. I didn’t ask for it to happen, but it did and you made me realise that whatever happens I just need to stand with my head held high. They don’t have anything against me but a bunch of lies told by someone who didn’t like it when I said no.”

Bambam listens to her intently. His eyes are basically glued to her lips as she talks about her struggles. The fear of a scandal in him rising up to the surface. He can’t afford a scandal and the pressure of avoiding them has been too much lately. 

Trying not to look at any female idols for too long and making sure no one was ever in the reflections in his pictures. Some rumours were already flying around when he left, so the company sent him here for a bit until it calmed down. If Yugyeom knew, he would only feel bad for his friend so Bambam disguised it as a lad trip.

“No matter how hard we work, it can be so fleeting.” Bambam sighs. “Like it’ll be snatched away if we don’t keep an eye on it at all times.”

Gia steps closer to him and wraps her arms around his shoulders, pulling him into a tight hug. Both of them engulfed in the fear of losing everything they’ve been working for their whole lives. Both terrified to go home, in case it all crumbled to pieces already. 

In Gia’s room, her phone is ringing for the twelfths time in under ten minutes. Her PR-manager has some news for her that can’t wait until the next day. 

Meanwhile Yugyeom is looking for Bambam after getting off his phone with their own manager. The company wants them back as soon as possible to discuss things, but Yugyeom has no idea what they mean and needs Bambam to shed some light on the situation. 

With the truth finally revealed, it seems that the universe is pulling at the other end of their strings, telling them to come back home.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really enjoyed writing about these characters and hope you had a good time reading this fanfic. Merry Christmas to you all and enjoy the last chapter, followed by the epilog!

Bambam is quietly sitting on his bed. When Yugyeom found him, he looked really mad and Bambam isn’t used that mood from him at all and it makes him nervous. Yugyeom has been pacing up and down the room for half an hour now, without saying a word. He’s trying to process the information Bambam gave him without getting mad. 

“So this isn’t a vacation?”

“Nope, but doesn’t mean we weren’t supposed to have a good time.” 

“Why didn’t you tell me, man?” Yugyeom sits down next to Bambam and stares at him worriedly. He could’ve helped take his mind off of it and perhaps even consoled him a bit. But knowing he had to deal with that on his own made Yugyeom a little sad and uncomfortable. 

“It wasn’t that serious.” He shrugs, but deep down he really wishes he had told him. The only person he confided in isn’t here with him anyway, so he has been keeping his feelings buried inside of him. 

He looks at Yugyeom apologetically unsure what to say next and seeing the doubtful expression on his friend’s face, he realises that Yugyeom probably knows more already than he leads on. 

“You called Jaebeom…” Bambam guesses and falls backwards into the pillows. Yugyeom nods but doesn’t say anything. Instead he lies down next to Bambam and listens intently. “I really thought it would blow over with the company statement…” Bambam groans in frustration. “So they want us to come back?” 

“They are sending us our boarding passes tonight.” Yugyeom nods and puts his hand behind his head. “What will you do now?” 

“I have no idea.” Bambam admits and rubs his eyes, suddenly feeling extremely tired as if he hadn’t slept in for the past two weeks. 

Meanwhile, Gia is drinking her last daytime Mojito at the bar with Enzo. He seems very chatty today, almost like the depressed and sad Gia made him afraid to be his usual chatterbox. But seeing her happy and content must’ve unplugged whatever was clogging his vocal chords, because boy did he have a lot of gossip to share. 

“And you know Sophia from the beach bar?” He leans onto the bar with his eyebrows raised. He looks like a kid at Christmas waiting to open the presents under the tree. 

“Night time?” Gia asks trying to keep up with the third sept-with-older-guests stories. The first one was a bit boring, just this nice young girl who was swooned by a charming looking fifty-year-old. Enzo said that happens a lot, but it’s all just fun and games. 

Then the second was very juicy. Apparently it involved the boss’ son and this lovely older lady whom they all believed to be in her twenties. When her age was revealed, the boss went ballistic and threatened to kick her out if she even looks at his son again. Gia laughed. She didn’t know Enzo collected dirty stories like these. Not that there is anything wrong with these people for getting some, but it is definitely nice that the rumours being told aren’t about her. 

“Yes that one!” Enzo nods. “She’s slept with the guy three years ago and he still sends her jewellery every Christmas.” He reveals and shakes his head. “If I knew about this when I was young and sexy, I would be swimming in presents from the old ladies here.” 

Gia bursts out laughing. “Enzo, you are still sexy.” She tries her best to wink, but instead closes both eyes making him snort. 

“Sure thing. But not charming older ladies sexy.” 

“Maybe that’s a good thing.” Gia nods her head in approval. “Leave them lonely old ladies alone.” 

“Where’s your friend today?” He asks as Gia takes a sip through her straw. She shrugs. “Oh, are things not going well in paradise?” 

“We might be in literal paradise…” Gia chuckles. “but we really aren’t involved like that.” She leans forward a little and lowers her voice. “Maybe spread that a bit.” Enzo shakes his head with a sweet smile on his face. 

“That wouldn’t be fun.” With that he walks away.

Gia is alone with her thoughts and for the first time in almost three weeks, she feels at peace. Knowing that she will go home and face the storm waiting there has had a healing effect on her. Who’d have thought? 

Even her ringtone doesn’t immediately put her in a state of anger or fear. So she just picks it up, without checking the caller ID.

“Hello?” She answers cheerfully and is met with silence. Her PR-manager seems to be too flabbergasted to respond. She hasn’t been addressed this nicely in a month, so now she doesn’t know what to say. “Hello?” Gia repeats moving her phone from her ear to check the caller ID just to make sure. “Bea?” 

“Yes, hi. Gia?” She answers almost hesitantly. 

“Of course it’s Gia. You called me remember?” Gia jokes and brings her straw back to her mouth, finally tasting the full strength of a cocktail made by Enzo. Maybe she should’ve stuck with the watered down versions, because wow, this is some strong stuff.

“Yeah, but… are you okay?” The confusion in her voice makes Gia laugh again, which in return confuses her manager even more. “Is that a no? Have you gone insane? Do I need to send someone to get you?” 

“No, oh my god. You are so dramatic. I’m just happy.” Gia adds and points at her glass then puts her hands together in a silent prayer. “One more please.” She whispers to Enzo with a sheepish smirk. “So what’s up?” 

“I need you to make a statement regarding the allegation he made against you.” Her PR-manager starts and sighs. “He’s been adding things to the story and saying that you did in fact break up with him two months ago but then begged him to get back together-“

“Whatever that jerk has in store, let’s pull out the receipts and fight him for defamation.” Gia suddenly interrupts in a more serious tone. “He messed with the wrong bitch and it’s about time I stand up for myself.” 

The line goes quiet for a second and Gia wonders if she said the wrong thing. Maybe this is the wrong strategy, but Bea will definitely tell her if that’s the case. 

“You want to sue him?” Bea asks to clarify.

“If I don’t, then who will take me seriously again?” She shrugs. “Besides, my reputation is already in the gutter, I don’t think it could get much worse.”

“I’ll consult the lawyers, but I’m unsure if we can…” 

“If we can’t sue him, then we sue the magazine that printed the interview.” Gia shakes her head. “Someone is responsible for the slander I endured and I intend to face them head first. In court.”

“Okay.” She responds on the other end of the call with a sense of pride. 

“Okay?” Gia asks in surprise. 

“Yeah, that’s the most cooperation I’ve gotten from you in a month.” She chuckles. “And it’s refreshing to hear you sound like your old self again. Welcome back.” 

“Book my flight for tomorrow please.” Gia smiles to herself. “And welcome me back then.” 

!!!

“What happened to him?” Gia asks worried at the state in which Bambam is skinny dipping. Or well trying to skinny dip, since he is struggling with his boxer shorts. Yugyeom keeps a hold of his arm, which also doesn’t facilitate the task. 

“He said and I quote: you can’t force me on that plane. The company can suck it. I’m staying here forever.” Yugyeom repeats and sighs in frustration. When he said he would be there for his friend, he didn’t mean stop him from running into the ocean drunk and butt naked. 

“You’ll stay with me, right Gia?” Bambam slurs his words slightly and she starts feeling guilty. He must’ve been so busy helping her figure out her life, that he forgot to solve his own issue. 

“Of course. But how about we do that somewhere far away from waves?” Surprisingly that works and Bambam stumbles backwards into her. She puts her arm around his waist and starts walking down towards the path, while Yugyeom picks up Bambam’s discarded clothes. 

If anyone crosses their path, they’ll probably cook up a new interesting rumour about them, but Gia couldn’t care less. She’s leaving tomorrow and is Bambam. She’ll make sure of it. 

“Why don’t you want to go?” Gia asks softly and wipes some sand off of Bambam’s cheek from when he face planted on the beach. 

Had it not been such an unexpected sight, she would’ve probably laughed at him a little. He meets her eyes, but they don’t hold their usual bright shine. Instead she is met with deep sadness and a hint of loneliness. His eyes are searching hers for compassion and just anything other than accusations. Why would anyone want to ruin his life like that when he hasn’t done anything wrong? Tears begin welling up in his eyes and he sniffles lightly.

“What did I do wrong?” He responds barely over a whisper without breaking eye contact. 

The tone of his voice causes a shiver to run through Gia’s body. The guy who had been the epitome of cheerfulness is crumbling in front of her eyes asking her what’s wrong with him. She stops and looks around to make sure no one is around. She holds up her hand to Yugyeom come over and help her. 

Gia walks Bambam over to the back of the beach bar, where they can sit on the floor and lean against the wall. Together they hold onto Bambam until he is securely on the floor and Yugyeom puts his shirt over his head. 

“Put that on.” He says quietly, not a drop of judgement in his tone. Gia looks to Yugyeom with a worried expression, as Bambam lets some silent tears roll down his cheeks. Yugyeom smiles weakly and sits down on the other side of him. 

“I know this guy,” Gia starts staring straight ahead and a genuine smile on her face. “he always does his best to make others laugh. He’s such a good guy that others tend to forget there are layers to him too. His feelings can get hurt too.” Gia chuckles. “He’s such a kind hearted guy, that many people take advantage of that.” 

Bambam looks down at his hand lazily hanging over his knees. He hates to cry in front of people, so he tries to hide it as much as possible, but a small sob betrays him. Yugyeom instantly puts his arm around Bambam’s shoulders and hugs him lightly. Gia has to look away further to hold back her own tears. Seeing him like this really is taking a toll on her. 

“Whatever happened, I know you did nothing wrong.” Gia explains and finally turns to look at him, but she can’t keep her tears at bay. She tries her best to smile though and leans down a bit to meet his gaze. “Okay?” 

Bambam looks at her with such pain on his face. Every feature on his face is tense or flushed, or both, and he wants to reach out to her and believe what she’s saying. But how can she know he did nothing wrong when she doesn’t know the situation? 

“There was this girl I met.” Bambam leans his head up again and wipes his cheeks. “We went on one date, but I didn’t really like her so I told her it’s best we don’t meet again.” He sniffles. “I thought if I came here, it would all be taken care of by the time I go back.”

“You told her though, so you did everything right.” 

“I did everything right and I am still the one with the bad publicity…” Bambam bites his lip in anger. “I went on a date. That’s it.” He groans and kicks the sand under his foot. “I just went on a date…” He whispers and starts pulling at his hair in frustration. 

Gia reaches up to hold the fists he had formed in his hair and starts rubbing the back of them softly until he loosens his grip. She looks to Yugyeom for help and he moves around to stand up. 

“Exactly. And you know what you can do now?” Gia leans forward a little to whisper in his ear. “Go solve that shit.” Gia takes his hands into hers when he finally fully lets go and kneels next to him. “Let’s go.” 

“Where?” He asks weakly. 

“To sleep.” She answers and stands up. She tries to pull him up with her but fails and Yugyeom steps in to give her a hand. “And then you’re gonna fight the bitch.”


	12. Chapter 12

Flipping through the pages of her book “Life doesn’t give you Lemons”, Gia is waiting for her plane to board. The busy airport noise giving her the perfect atmosphere to read a bit more about how to improve herself. Who is she kidding? If she’s learned anything on this trip, it’s that no matter how hard she tries to change her innermost insecurities, they remain a part of her. Instead, embrace them. 

The memories of her time start flooding her mind. The visuals of the beach and the hiking trips replace the sight of sweaty travellers running to catch their flights. The smell of the fresh ocean air before dawn and the sound of the wind blowing through the trees flood her senses. If only she could do it all over again, she wouldn’t change a single thing. 

Well, maybe one thing. She would try and spend more time with him. She didn’t intend to have a holiday fling, but the most amazing people are met unexpectedly. 

Gia remembers his face so clearly. She could be staring at him right now. His high cheekbones and his sharp jawline, his short hair, barely long enough to fall onto his forehead… it all just seems too perfect to be a real human being. The way he whispered in his ear… She shakes her head. This is not the place to be thinking about those moments, but she can’t wipe the smirk from the vivid memories of him off her face. 

Gia bites her lip and chuckles to herself. 

The noise picks up and some screaming fills the departure hall. Gia looks up to find the source and notices a big group of young girls mixed with photographers shuffling their way down towards the gates. She stands up to peak at the person they are all following and raises her eyebrows when she spots them. 

Bambam has a hand in his pocket and a pair of sunglasses on his nose. He looks dashing, Gia thinks to herself. She picks up her stuff, fully aware she can’t speak with him or call out to him, but what she can do, is show herself for a brief moment. A silent goodbye. A silent I appreciate everything you’ve done. A silent farewell. 

So, she gets up and puts her backpack over her shoulders. She steps over to the corridor between the rows of seats and starts making her way towards the swarm of people moving the opposite direction. Before she knows it, they are at eye level and she can see the way his lips curl up as he looks over his sunglasses.

His gestures barely visible. No one would know they even looked at each other, if they weren’t expecting it and so they pass by each other with a warm smile on their faces. With no hope to ever meet again, Gia and Bambam return to their lives with a sweet memory.

A couple of months later, Bambam is sipping through the channels on his TV with his cats on either side of him. He put a facemask on, since he has finally gotten rid of the stalker who tried to take him down. It wasn’t an easy battle, especially since many thought he was in the wrong, but Gia was right. He had to fight the bitch. He chuckles at the thought. 

After all the time he spent away, his favourite memory is of her. The way he got to watch her really find herself and experience that change with her, makes him feel a sense of pride. He never thought himself capable of really helping anyone in their lives like that, let alone a fan. He chuckles again. If only he hadn’t been sworn to secrecy, then he could tell the other members about the crazy vomit girl from Germany. 

It was the perfect vacation. He goes to the next channel just as the news anchor shows a picture of Gia on screen. Next to her is an edited picture of the A-list actor she made the mistake of going out with for a year. He quickly switches the channel back and sits up straight already pressing down hard on the volume button. 

He was wondering if he should message her on Instagram or just try and contact her again, but decided against it. They agreed to that after all, to just keep the memory. A fleeting moment in their lives that they won’t ever be able to forget. 

Gia thinks about Bambam at least twice a day, sometimes three times when she really misses him. She also fought the urge to message him, when she needed a pep talk or just someone to understand her screams. The court had barely started, but the public’s opinion had shifted almost instantly. It seems that he didn’t do this only to her, but other up-and-coming actresses as well. Once they joined forces, taking him down was a piece of cake and his credibility died as fast as his career. 

Gia really wishes she could tell him that. Just tell him that she did it and she kept her promise. If she could just make sure he knows that he had the best impact on her life, then she could rest and never speak to him again. She’s been keeping up with him online, but she wonders if he did too. 

When she steps out of the court room after the first hearing of a difficult trial, she feels so much relief that she is even being heard, being listened to for once. Her voice isn’t just ignored or drowned out amongst thousands of other voices, that think they know better. She is so relieved that she can’t help laughing and almost crying. When she looks into the camera that day, she is hoping that he’s watching, because that smile is solely for him. 

And so Bambam lets himself fall back into the couch cushions with a bright smile on his face. The only thing on his mind is Gia’s face and the soft sound of her voice as she thanks the reporters for coming out to cover the case. The image of her eyes glistening with happy tears and the smile of victory on her face still echoing in his mind, with no other thoughts to compete with. He laughs. They did it. They fought their demons. 

Now they can let them go, because the happy memories of meeting each other is worth more than the sadness that lead up to it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am really gonna miss double B and Gia. I love writing their dynamic! I hope everyone is staying safe and staying hydrated, thanks for reading.


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